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Friday, January 31, 2014

Once again, I let my blog go stagnant. Sorry, but I've got some good excuses... We are fostering a dog for local rescue. We sort of got into it by accident. We found a dog dumping ground one night looking for an alternate way home due to an accident further up our usual route. We ended up picking up two puppies a couple of days later. We kept one and vetted the other and then found her a home. Before we were even done vetting them, we made plans to rescue the female dog that was hanging out with these puppies. She ended up being hit by a car and dying before we could gain her trust, so the very next day, we picked up another one of the dumped dogs. We named him Jack, we are working with Bailey's Arms Rescue Center and he is almost ready for adoption.

These two are Reba (blonde) and Luna (black), we guesstimate that they were about 4 months old, we still have doubts they were from the same litter. We found Reba an awesome new home and Luna has come out of her shell and keeping busy with our pack. We made sure they received their shots, were microchipped, spayed, and dewormed. It is expensive, but we're just doing what we can.

This is Jack. We cannot believe how far he has come, it still makes me cry when I look at his picture the day we rescued him. He's a real good boy, eager to please, on the younger side of 2 to 3 years of age. He was heartworm positive, but is now cured! He's received all of his shots, been neutered, and has put on weight. His skin is almost back to 100% and we are so pleased with how he is doing. Someone is going to be really lucky when they bring him home!

This is a young dog we picked up along the highway about 10 days ago. She's really thin, scared, and yet, full of love. She's starting to trust us and is finally feeling okay about our dogs. We are still looking for her family, but if we don't find them soon, it looks like we will be vetting her and looking for a forever home for her. I would love to find another rescue group to work with, but so far, most rescue groups are just too busy. Memphis has a real problem with dumped dogs and cats. We're calling her Willow and one major concern is that she may be pregnant. She is certainly old enough, her nipples are enlarged, but not sagging as if full of milk, she wasn't leaking.... so she is either in the early stages of pregnancy or was pregnant and dumped after the puppies were weaned. I'm trying to stay positive and think that we will find her owners, after all, in Fayetteville, we found a dog and kept her and found her family after over a month. Positive thoughts! Or, at the very least, perhaps a rescue group will step forward and help us help her. We will foster her along with Jack, if need be. What's one more dog?!?!?

Anyway, in the meantime, I've been squeezing in some beading when not homeschooling or dog wrangling. Here are some photos of what I have been up to.

This is an open loom that I made with some leftover copper pipe and elbows. Pretty easy, nothing is soldered so I can take it apart if I don't like the size. The pattern is mine and this is a current work in progress.

I made these star earrings for my mother using 15/0 Delicas adn sterling silver, copper, and gold plated findings, and some of them also have Swarovski Marguerite crystals. I used a pattern from one of the beading magazines that was published several years ago.

This is a Cellini Spiral necklace that I made for myself. It took a long time in between unpacking, but it was so worth it. I made it for a wedding to go with my dress. I used this tutorial for a guide and I used a silver plated magnetic clasp to finish it off.

I designed these flower earrings myself for my mother's birthday. They took a long time to design... first I started on paper and then all of those versions of flower petals were made with 15/0 Delicas and round seed beads and after what seemed like a million tries, I had the earrings I liked. I have not created a tutorial for these as I am not very good with computer software, nor do I really have time to take step by step photos and use Photoshop to help create a tutorial. I will eventually make a few to sell in my online shop.

These three pictures are just a few of the spiral ropes that I beaded up.... they helped pass the time while being fun and easy. One of these days I will take some decent photos so that I can post them in my shop!

This is a pattern I designed as a Christmas gift for my sister and brother-in-law. I was trying to mimic blackwork that I've seen in embroidery, only of course, I would be doing it with beads. It is done in 3-drop Peyote stitch with just white and matte black Delicas. It came out to about 9 1/8" by 9 7/8" and I ran out of time to mat or frame it, but that was ok because I was nervous about mailing a frame during the holidays. I may offer parts of the pattern in my pattern shop, but this is one time thing with the 3 pets in the same picture... it represents their fur babies. This project took about a month to do amongst all of the holiday activities and shopping, etc.

And this last photo is the most recently completed project... again, this is my design for loomed beadwork or square stitch.... it might even work for cross stitch too. It came out to 5 1/8" and 5 1/2" and I am currently working on another one for my friend in different colors. I will eventually get this pattern listed in my shop.